The Dance that may soon fade int he midst of Prehistory

"I found them so cool, that I dared myself to feel my inner beyonce and danced with the crowd, not knowing if they would accept me or completely toss me back out. Hands down, this is a dance that I will never forget."

Walking towards the beautifully decorated women of the Himba Tribe of Namibia, a culture that is so different to mine, I've approached them with mindful respect. Here you can see a mother breast feeding her child and yet she remains calmly intrigued by our visit. The other women surrounding her are just hanging around nature’s only shade of the season, which in their case is a dry and dead tree composed of their intricately hand-crafted ornaments. At first sight, there were no men to be found, just the women and children.

Getting up close with the Himba Ladies, I was curious about their reason for style. Just look at the woman in front of me. It is as if she is wearing the illusion of the elephants trunks on her chest. Many of the women were pointing at me and touching my neck and then giggling. They were also fascinated by my spurious golden tattoo necklace (which is quite frankly so last year). They just could not understand how my tattoo necklace to my body and that they could not feel it.

As they started dancing, I was able to see the accessories bounce about. They have a fascination of decorating themselves with Jewelries and Body Pieces. Looking closely, the woman dancing in the middle is actually wearing a Key Necklace. Since we are not allowed to offer them any present of any kind, I wonder how she has gotten a hold of this key and what value it has for her. She was not the only one that had a key hanging on to their bodies.

Like many other African dances, the Himba dance follow a certain pattern. Strange to say that I have read that it is normally the children who are dancing. Not in this experience. It was the woman who were dancing their heart out. There is a very distinct melody, which is always repeated and accompanied by this clapping. Just to say, our guide said they normally don’t do this to outsiders, especially if we just come for the day. But I do believe its really because I started singing and dancing with the children and smiling and hinting the women to get their groove on too. I was truly humbled by this experience.

With ♥,

Mimi / Style Tourista